In-depth interviews with seminal metal band Neurosis and an examination of the solo acoustic guitar series Imaginational Anthem

When disciples of solo acoustic guitar music need to convince a non-believer that their favored form matters, the legacy of Led Zeppelin often comes into play. It's no secret that Jimmy Page-- the electric wizard whose riffs still delight teenagers with "Black Dog" and "Stairway to Heaven"-- lifted ideas from several such stylists. When Bert Jansch died last year, for instance, obituaries dutifully trotted out Page's early obsession with the British guitarist and the tale that, at one point, Jansch's label considered suing Page for plagiarism. And that's only the most infamous incident of Page's propensity for flat-pickers.

Page, of course, went on to influence countless guitarists and rock bands, his reputation far outstripping those of the blues and folk players he'd studied. But his adoration for those musicians rather directly helped spawn the imprint that, for the last seven years, has been one of the world's safest and ablest harbors for acoustic guitarists, Tompkins Square Records. Since 2005, Tompkins Square has turned attention toward dozens of musicians and records-- hardline traditionalists, zydeco progenitors, country legends, instrumental explorers-- that might have otherwise gone unnoticed or unheard. Tompkins Square doesn't reissue artists so much as rediscover them, giving others the chance to do the same; what's more, Tompkins Square also serves as a clearinghouse for new artists like James Blackshaw or Hiss Golden Messenger, both young musicians connecting with ancient ideas. That's a story not dissimilar from Led Zeppelin.

"Everything for me starts with Jimmy Page," explains Josh Rosenthal from his home in San Francisco. "Hearing "Black Mountain Side", that style of playing and fingerpicking of that tune, that's where it started in my brain."

Rosenthal's enthusiasm for the acoustic guitar progressed through college, from Jansch's Pentangle to a few records by John Fahey. He concurrently worked at large record labels, from Polygram at the age of 16 to, after college, a gig with Columbia Records in the promotions department. During his time there, the label issued its landmark Robert Johnson box set, which went on to sale more than a million copies, win a Grammy and earn inclusion in the National Recording Registry.

"It took a while for other labels to understand that there could be a critical mass for this kind of stuff," Rosenthal remembers. "But I think that set was the first reissue shot fired in the modern era."

By 2005, he'd grown discontent in his executive post at Sony. He needed to do his own work, to build his own brand: "I started it on a whim. The first Imaginational Anthem is the first record I put out."

That record-- a 16-track compilation of acoustic guitarists both young and old, dead and alive, famous and obscure-- set the tone for Tompkins Square's mix of work by archival and emerging artists. The set ends, for instance, with a 1969 recording of the tune "Imaginational Anthem" by Max Ochs, a guitarist who'd been affiliated with Fahey and released a few tracks on Takoma Records. Rosenthal found Ochs, who had forgotten that he'd recorded the song 35 years earlier and supplied Rosenthal with the updated 2004 rendition of "Imaginational Anthem" that begins with the set. The balance of tunes recorded across multiple decades was telling: Elsewhere, Kaki King and Brad Barr offered sparks of youthful promise, while tracks from Sandy Bull and Fahey himself provided historical roots.

"The whole point of the label is to try and contextualize things and make them current in a way, drawing a timeline through the decades," Rosenthal explains. "To show why someone is an innovator is a really special opportunity."

The most successful releases on Tompkins Square do exactly that; among those are four subsequent editions of Imaginational Anthem, which continued to pair past masters of the acoustic guitar with its latest lights. In 2010, Tompkins Square issued the fourth volume: Although it was subtitled New Possibilities, Rosenthal thought that the 11-song set might end the series. He'd run through the pool of players he wanted to include, and the discoveries he'd recently made of unexposed musicians didn't feel like they belonged with the work he'd already amassed.

"I'm one of those people who say that acoustic guitarists are dead all the time. And then someone else comes around," he admits. "But I wasn't inspired by what I was hearing, so there was going to be no Imaginational Anthem 5. I couldn't find the talent."

Rather than retire the series, Rosenthal did what he's often done with Tompkins Square releases-- find someone who knows more than he does. Although the label works within a niche market, and while Rosenthal finds many of the records he eventually reissues simply by asking questions and seeking acoustic guitar music he's never before heard, he is surprisingly non-proprietary about Tompkins Square's output; old-time musician Frank Fairfield, music critic and archivist Mike McGonigal, and guitarist Nathan Salsburg have all compiled and controlled recent sets for Rosenthal.

"Those are the people who have the talent. These people have deep knowledge," he says. "I am a dilettante. I am a fan. I am somebody who is an appreciator, but these are people who have real knowledge. I'm humbled by being able to work with people like that."

Sam Moss: "Miniature Dwellings II"

Sam Moss, a young player from southern Vermont, contributed the elegiac "Miniature Dwellings II" to Imaginational Anthem 4. In the past, he'd only self-released his records, making the invitation to join the lauded series a big deal. Since he'd only been playing acoustic guitar for a few years, the early Imaginational Anthem efforts had helped show him the spectrum of acoustic music, from the folk creak of Glenn Jones to the florid billows of James Blackshaw. He confesses that he'd never worked harder on a track than his Imaginational Anthem piece.

Through Facebook, Rosenthal noticed that Moss had become, at the least, online friends with several of his favorite young acoustic players; he reckoned Moss might have the energy, network and enthusiasm to curate an interesting addition to the series. Moss took the series to places that Rosenthal had never imagined-- the bravado of Bill Orcutt sits counterintuitively next to the rising spires of Daniel Bachman, while the strident plucks and pops of London's Cam Deas nestle between beautiful bits from Alexander Turnquist and Israeli guitarist Yair Yona. "My main goal was not attempting to show everything one could do with the acoustic guitar," says Moss, "but that that the possibilities are vast."

The future of Imaginational Anthem remains undecided: On Black Friday, Tompkins Square will issue the series as a single box set in an edition of 999 copies, a logical end to its run. But Moss thinks he could find more players to share the strange and evolving tale of solo guitar music, depending on how hard Rosenthal will allow him to push the issue.

"I like looking at Imaginational Anthem as, 'Here are some different ways of approaching the acoustic guitar,'" says Moss. "If that's the case, I think it could go on indefinitely. There are so many players that it is overwhelming."